What's in a Name? City Naming Project

Dominant vs. Recessive Traits

As Mendel discovered in his pea plant experiments, some human traits are controlled by dominant and recessive genes. Parents pass the genes that control these traits to their offspring. Which inherited traits do you have?

Credit, Then and Now

The 1920s saw the birth of consumer credit, with charge accounts at stores, credit cards, and installment loans. Today it’s hard to imagine modern life without these kinds of credit. Yet in both eras, families often found themselves in severe financial hardship due to overusing easy credit and then not being able to pay their bills.

Blood Spatter Patterns

Blood spatter is a collection of blood spots, which may be different sizes and shapes depending on how they were formed. Blood spatter differs depending on the amount of blood, the speed of the drop, the angle at which it hits the ground, and the distance the drop travels.

Warbling Wineglasses

Ben Franklin was an inventor, composer, and musician who lived from 1706 to 1790. He created the glass armonica, which was a popular musical instrument of the time made of glasses mounted on a revolving spindle, played with a moistened fingertip. Where did Franklin find the inspiration for the glass armonica? At a musical performance in London, the performer’s instruments were wineglasses of. . . MORE

Passive Dynamic Mini-Walker

A passive dynamic walker doesn’t need a motor or actuator of any kind. Its only power source is the force of gravity! Also called a ramp walker, this system of walking works best on a slightly downward-tilted surface. Give it a little push and gravity will pull it downhill the rest of the way. This method of walking doesn’t just save energy, it looks more natural too. Here is one way of. . . MORE

Barter Chart

When you barter, you have to decide if one thing is worth as much as another thing. Think of six different kinds of candy. Are they all the same size? Do you like them all equally? What would it take for you trade them?

Swim Paddles

Even at a young age, Ben was a good observer and inventor. When he was swimming, he saw that some kids could swim faster than others. Ben decided to experiment with ways to make himself go faster both on the surface and under the water. He believed that the size of a swimmer’s hands and feet might be the difference, so when he was around 10 years old, he invented swim paddles. Now you have a. . . MORE

Alka-Seltzer Rocket

Make Your Own Plastic

While this recipe doesn’t involve boiling lilies or eggs, combining the following ingredients over heat will result in a natural plastic that you can shape, dry, carve, and paint, very similar to Leonardo’s plastic glass.

Planetary Rings Model

Bags o' Bread Mold

Fungi lack chlorophyll, so they can’t obtain energy from the sun and can’t produce their own food. To get energy, many fungi feast on dead organisms. Mold is a fuzzy, multicellular fungus that flourishes in many environments. It reproduces with spores. You can grow your own mold on slices of bread. What happens when you place them in different environments?

Make a Manga-style Sketchbook

Simple Energy Car

With this simple car, you’ll see the difference between stored energy and kinetic energy. When the rubber band is twisted tight, it’s packed with potential energy—stored up and ready for anything. When you release the rubber band, the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy—and your car moves. Try different sizes of rubber bands to see the difference in output.

Make Your Own Marshmallows

Ancient people used a plant to make marshmallows, but that’s not how we make them today. If you’ve never created your own marshmallows before you’re in for a treat! They’re easy to make, and they taste fantastic!

To Dye For!

Has your old T-shirt seen better days? No need to let it die. Dye it instead! Next time your family boils colorful veggies, don’t dump the water. Use it to brew natural dyes the way the colonists and pioneers did. Then use the dyes to jazz up your shirt and give it new life.

Cloud Forest Terrarium

The Andean cloud forest is found on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. The warm, humid air from the Amazon basin makes its way up the mountains where it is blocked by cold, denser air there. The trapped air drops its moisture in the form of clouds and mist, quenching the thirst of the plants that grow in this unique ecosystem. A terrarium made from a soda bottle works like the cloud. . . MORE

Make Your Own Sundial

Shadows change direction depending on the time of day. As the earth rotates and the sun moves across the sky, shadows also move. In the morning, your shadow will stretch out behind you to the west, but in the evening it will stretch to the east. The shadow on your sundial does the same thing.

Loom and Cloth

Make Your Own Shake Table

Architects and engineers who design buildings in areas prone to earthquakes try to create structures that will be stable if an earthquake hits. a shake table is used to shake a model and see what happens. It makes the same motion as an earthquake. You can see what it’s like when you build your own shake table and then try to create structures that can withstand the force of moving earth. . . MORE

Aeolipile

In this project, you can recreate the work of the Greek mathematician Hero, using water instead of steam. The basic principle of action and reaction is the same—for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As the water shoots out of the holes in the carton, it pushes on the carton with an equal force.

Make a Hanging Garden

King Nebuchadnezzar (NEBUH- KUHD-NEZ-ER) ruled over the Babylonian Empire from 605 to 562 BCE. He married Queen Amytis (A-ME-TIS) of Media, an area in what is now the country of Iran. According to legend, Queen Amytis was quite homesick for the lush, green mountains of Media. King Nebuchadnezzar had the Hanging Gardens built to cheer her up and to remind her of her homeland.

The Right Footing

A pagoda’s tiers hold up to the force of powerful winds by moving independently. Shibam’s mud skyrises also stand up to the force of wind. But Shibam is vulnerable to floods. Experiment with natural materials to build foundations, determining which best stand up to the forces of wind and water.

Model Lungs

Lungs aren’t muscles that move themselves. Instead, they depend on air pressure in your chest cavity and movement from your diaphragm and chest muscles to inflate and deflate. Here’s how you can see this in action.

Knitting Spool

Before the power loom was invented, weaving and knitting were slow, tedious tasks. Try hand weaving with your own knitting spool. With a few simple items and some yarn, you can create a knitted tube that you could use as a bracelet, belt, or skinny scarf!

Make Your Own Gordian Knot

One legend says Alexander conquered Asia by solving the puzzle of the Gordian Knot. According to a prophecy, whoever untied this endless knot would rule the continent. Alexander took the direct approach—he cut the knot open with his sword. Today, a “Gordian knot” means an unsolvable problem. No one knows exactly what the Gordian Knot looked like. But you can make a knot called a Turk’s. . . MORE

Reading Seasons from a Shadow

Each day the sun appears to move across the sky from east to west (actually the sun stays in place and the earth spins on its axis). Although the sun may seem to rise and set at the same spot on the horizon each day, the path it takes between those two points varies over the course of the year.

Electroscope

Anemometer

An anemometer measures wind speed. The Wright brothers used a handheld anemometer to estimate wind speed when they tested their flying machines. You can make an anemometer to record wind speed near your home.

On the Straight and Level

In the introduction you made a plumb bob that used gravity to make sure things are vertical. Now you can make a water level, a tool that uses gravity to make sure things are straight across! The water level works because when water is in a confined space, gravity makes sure the top of it is level.

Night Watch

Make Your Own Freshwater

The water cycle takes salt water from the ocean and turns it into freshwater. When the salt water evaporates, it leaves the salt in the ocean. When the water vapor cools and turns into rain, it falls as freshwater! This is how rain fills lakes and rivers with freshwater. In this activity, you can explore how the water cycle turns salt water into fresh!

Make Your Own Jumping Jack

A jumping jack is a puppet that is usually made from wood with strings connecting the joints. It is one of the earliest types of mechanical toys to use levers. The arms and legs of the puppet move up and down when the string is pulled. Try this activity to make your own jumping jack.

Origami Solar System Mobile

All the members of our solar system travel around the sun. The route they travel is called an orbit. Each planet’s orbit is different. Like runners at the Olympics, each has a separate lane. The planets do not switch lanes because the sun’s gravity keeps them in their place. If there was no gravity the planets would simply spin off into space like bumper cars. Imagine that!

Salt Water Experiment

Make Your Own Barometer

One way you can predict the weather is by using a barometer. Barometers measure the air pressure around you. Keep track of the air pressure, and see what kind of weather happens the next day. After some practice, you might be able to make your own forecasts!

Tetrahedron Forcebuster

Civil engineers rely on triangles for many constructions. it is the strongest shape. The tetrahedron is a shape with four triangular faces (think of the pyramids of egypt). Test how well triangle power can resist pushing and pulling forces. Ask an adult to help you thread the sewing needle and supervise as you use it. Connect the straws tightly. They should be rigid, not loose. it is helpful if. . . MORE

Build a Balance Board

Earth’s atmosphere is in a delicate balance. Humans are adding carbon dioxide at a rapid rate. The atmosphere needs to stay in balance just like your balance board, but it doesn’t take much to create an imbalance.

Sending Signals

Neurons send signals by releasing chemical neurotransmitters across a synapse, the space between neurons. The axon terminal releases the neurotransmitter, which moves across the synapse and attaches to receptors on the dendrites of a nearby neuron. This generates an electrical signal that goes to the neuron’s cell body. If enough input signals are received, the cell body produces an. . . MORE

Make a Cardboard Arcade Game

In 2011, nine­-year­-old Caine Monroy built working cardboard versions of his favorite arcade games in his dad’s auto parts shop, including a basketball toss and a tabletop soccer game with plastic army men. A customer named Nirvan Mullick liked Caine’s Arcade so much, he invited lots of people to come and play. Mullick also made a short documentary about Caine’s Arcade, and Caine. . . MORE

Compare the Decades

In 2008, a recession took place in the United States that seemed to echo the Great Depression of the 1930s. Called the Great Recession, it was a time when unemployment spiked in 2008 and 2009 and many people lost their homes. How was this recession similar to the Great Depression?

Burning Fossil Fuels

Burning fossil fuels releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere. Large quantities of carbon dioxide are linked to global climate change. Humans release on average annually about 64 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That is like releasing 3.2 trillion watermelons into the sky every year. Since greenhouse gases are invisible, colorless, and. . . MORE

Converting Units

Chemistry uses many types of measurements. Some of the most common include distance, mass, time, temperature, volume, density, pressure, amount, concentration, energy, velocity, molarity, viscosity, and electric charge. Each of these can be measured in different ways. For example, mass can be measured in pounds, ounces, grams, and kilograms. Because of these differences, chemists must know how. . . MORE

Building Bridges

Forces act on everything, even things that are standing still. Engineers need to understand forces when they build structures such as bridges. Let’s see how different bridges support the forces that are placed upon them.

Take a Walk Through Time

Life began on the earth a very long time ago. Compared with when life first appeared, humans have been around for a very, very short period of time. This activity will help you think about geologic time compared to human time.

Backyard Bioengineering

Bioengineering has been around for a long time. People look to nature to design products that fit certain needs. We can also simply observe nature and see how it works. Inspiration can strike and you might be able to think of a way to improve an existing design.

How Light Travels Experiment

Greek Gods Memory Game

Greek gods and goddesses were linked to symbols or objects that reflected their interests and personality. Many had more than one symbol. In this game, you will design one playing card for each god and goddess and one for their corresponding symbols. You can use images of the gods and their symbols within this book for reference or ask an adult to help you find images online.

Predator and Prey Journal

Good scientists keep track of many things. They write down the things they wonder about and the questions they ask. They record the steps they take in the scientific method. Create a special notebook to help you keep track of what you do and learn about predators and prey.

Measure the Movement of Plates

You’ll need to have a lot of patience for this project. If you stick with it, you’ll have a great understanding of how the continents move! Ask an adult to help you find a location where it is safe and acceptable to use pins that will remain undisturbed for at least a month. You don’t want to use a nice wall in the house!

Extract Your Own DNA

In the movie Jurassic Park, biologists extract dinosaur DNA from mosquito-like bugs that were preserved for millions of years in amber. Today’s scientists have not yet turned this fiction into fact, but you can easily see your own DNA in your own home.

Create a Shakespearean Timeline

Every writer, artist, musician, or other cultural visionary is at least partly a product of their time. What might the history of Shakespeare’s era have contributed to the poems and plays he wrote that we enjoy today?